April 29, 2022

ASKING THE HARD QUESTIONS  Lake or Sea?  The Great Lakes of North America’s midsection—Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario—together span nearly 100,000 square miles, with a combined coastline just shy of 10,000 miles. They even have their own U.S. Coast Guard district, the only lakes with such a distinction. Superior and its siblings are capable of storm surges, rip currents, tsunamis, rogue waves, unique extreme weather phenomena, and destructive surf. They have claimed more than 6,000 ships, more than the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea combined, according to estimates. So should we really be calling them the Great Inland Seas?  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Can You Cook In a Volcano? We’d lava to find out. In São Miguel, a small island in the Portuguese Azores, cozido das furnas is one of the island’s specialties: a unique stew cooked in the geothermal heat of these hot springs. But São Miguel isn’t the only place where people use volcanic activity to cook. Here are five spots around the world that cook via volcano. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA VIDEO Mom’s Green Spaghetti For New York Times’ food reporter and cookbook author Priya Krishna, her love of food started young. It all began with a book and a recipe for “green spaghetti,” sparking the idea that a recipe was part of a mini-world to explore. With her mother’s help, green spaghetti came to life on the table—and piqued a lifelong interest in delving into how food can provide a family history through the lens of what we eat. WATCH NOW→ RIVINGTON, ENGLAND Liverpool Castle The original medieval Liverpool Castle stood in Liverpool near the waterfront, which is about 36 kilometers southwest of Rivington, but it had been demolished in the 1720s. The currently-existing structure named Liverpool Castle is a scaled replica that was commissioned by Lord Leverhulme, but it’s slowly crumbling, transforming from a folly meant to imitate the ruins of a castle into actual ruins. READ MORE → A ROCKY ROAD Saving Hyderabad’s Stunning Geology Boulders are everywhere in Hyderabad, India. They’re found in unexpected places: on sidewalks, in front of luxury hotels, and even inside people’s homes. Hyderabad’s traditional art, poetry, and folk songs are full of rocky references, and the boulders play a role in the preparation of one of its most famous dishes. But now, as the city expands, the rocks are being destroyed—something activists are fighting to stop. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA COURSES Chinese Tea and Art In China, tea has long been a part of the art world; it’s been the subject of iconic paintings, a recurring motif within poetry, and a ceremony in its own rite. In this 5-part seminar led by Dr. Xiaokun Song, students will explore the connection between Chinese art and tea—one in which tea has been a subject and also a shaping force of several artistic mediums. ENROLL TODAY→ AQUIRAZ, BRAZIL Insano Body Slide Insano, the crown jewel of Brazil’s giant water park, Beach Park, is the tallest freestanding body slide in the world. Daring riders freefall from the top—about the height of a 14-story building—to the bottom of the steep drop at speeds of up to 65 mph. Insano is the tallest freestanding body slide and is certainly one of the most radical rides of the planet. READ MORE → AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE COLD How to Survive Being Frozen Anna Bågenholm has spent much of her life at the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø. As a radiologist there, she performs MRIs and CT scans, checks up on patients, and makes rounds. But nearly two decades ago, in this same hospital, she also made history, on the other side of the operating table. A freak accident pushed Bågenholm to the brink of death, plunging her body temperature to 56.7 degrees Farenheit (or about 13 degrees Celsius), about 42 degrees below normal and lower than any human’s has ever been. How did she survive? READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA TRIPS Untamed Northern Patagonia On foot, on horseback, on mountain bikes, by boat or kayak, venture into some of the most spectacular natural scenery and old-growth forest, all while enjoying some of the most fabulous food and wine in Chile and Argentina. BOOK YOUR TRIP → EXIT, STAGE RIGHT The Final Ride of the Mail Robots In September 2017, there was a retirement party at the headquarters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s national broadcaster. After a quarter century of loyal service, five coworkers were moving on. But what made this party unusual was that the retiring colleagues weren’t people. They were robots. Mail-delivering robots, made under the brand name Mailmobile. READ MORE → SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Prubechu When Shawn Camacho and Shawn Naputi first opened Prubechu in 2014, it was the only Guamanian restaurant in San Francisco. Prior to opening, most of their customers had never heard of Chamorro food—Chamorro referring to an Indigenous people from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam—but now, the popular restaurant is a community stronghold, putting food from the Mariana Islands on the map. READ MORE → SPONSORED BY DISCOVER SOUTH CAROLINA Cemetery Island An 18th-century cemetery for the Harris family has its very own island in Townville, South Carolina. When the Savannah River increasingly threatened to flood the low-lying towns on its banks, the Hartwell Dam project began in earnest—but nobody chose to relocate the family graves. If local lore is to be believed, ghosts of the Harris family can be seen making occasional appearances on their now shrunken waterfront property. At least it’s a nice view? LEARN MORE →